Women's Day theme the daily focus at Girl Up

"Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures," this year's theme for International Women's Day, is the year-round rallying call of the United Nations Foundation's Girl Up campaign, which gives American girls the possibility to help adolescent girls around the world. "This day brings the issues facing women and girls around the world to center stage," writes Kathy Calvin, CEO of the UN Foundation, and "there is still much to be done to solve the problems women and girls face in many parts of the world." Care2.com (3/7)

"Happy International Women's Day, everyone. We have a suite of posts in store to commemorate the occasion. We will kick off the festivities here on UN Dispatch with two items from our friends at the UN Foundation and one excellent list from Women Deliver."

UN's Amos visits Syrian city amid diplomatic pushUnited Nations humanitarian chief Valerie Amos traveled Wednesday to the besieged Baba Amr neighborhood in the Syrian city of Homs, but found nearly deserted buildings and streets that had been scrubbed by the government of many signs of what opponents say were grave atrocities during nearly a month of bombardment. Kofi Annan, the joint Arab League-UN envoy to Syria, reiterated his warning against outside military intervention, adding that the solution to the violence must be political, and must be "Syrian-led and Syrian-owned." CBS News/The Associated Press (3/7), Al-Jazeera (3/8)

Corporate farm plan could revolutionize IndiaThe Indian government, in a bid to boost lagging agricultural output, is on the verge of approving a program that would unify the land of small farmers to create parcels large enough for commercial-scale production of wheat, corn and other crops in partnership with private companies. The program could revolutionize the country's agricultural sector, which employs about half its workforce. The Wall Street Journal (3/7)

Focus on cholera fix, not blame, Clinton tells HaitiansHaiti should focus on stemming the cholera outbreak that has killed more than 7,000 people and sickened more than 526,000 others since 2010, not on levying blame against the source of the disease, UN special envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton, said Wednesday. While studies have suggested that the cholera came from a Nepalese soldier serving as a peacekeeper, Clinton pointed out that the disease spread because of poor sanitation system. The Washington Post/The Associated Press (3/7)

Women Deliver lists 50 initiatives that help womenThe global advocacy organization against maternal death Women Deliver has published a list of what it is calling "the 50 most inspiring ideas and solutions that deliver for girls and women" to help commemorate International Women's Day. The list, which was compiled from hundreds of submissions from 103 countries, focuses on advocacy, education, health, leadership and technological innovations. The Huffington Post (3/8)

Women have come far, yet have far to goThe first 100 years of International Women's Day commemorated significant gains for women worldwide, especially in the sphere of education, but there is still far to go, write Glenys Kinnock and Jo Cox in an op-ed. "There is not yet worldwide recognition that women's rights are human rights," they write. "This year we have witnessed again how women are subjected to violence and oppression, and denied the most basic of rights around the world." The Guardian (London) (3/8)

Clampdown on illegal logging in CameroonCameroon has suspended the licenses of 27 companies found to be in violation of logging laws put into place after more than 13% of the country's forest cover was lost between 1990 and 2005 due to commercial logging, agriculture and the search for fuel. Illegal logging is rife, and the head of one of the companies that lost its license says a corrupt licensing process shares part of the blame. AlertNet (3/5)

UN cites a systematic crackdown on dissent in IranA new UN report chronicles what it calls a "striking pattern of violations of fundamental human rights" in Iran, highlighting a drastic rise in executions from fewer than 100 in 2003 to more than 650 in 2011, and the sustained abuse of students, women, journalists and religious minorities. The Wall Street Journal (3/7)

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